One of the highest duties of citizenship, jury duty accrues from the constitutional right to be tried by a panel of one's peers and involves direct participation in the administration of justice. As such, only a judge can excuse you from jury duty. Your employer must allow you time off to serve on a jury.

Judges can excuse you for public necessity, extreme inconvenience or if you are incapable of jury service. Clerks can sometimes, but not always, accommodate your needs when scheduling you to serve on a jury.

The law makes it clear that you must be excused from your job for jury service. You cannot be fired, demoted, or disciplined in any way for performing this public duty. Being self-employed is not an automatic excuse from jury duty.